Ataraxia
by Madhog thy Master
Summary: The state of mind by which the individual is incapable of feeling Anxiety and/or Fear. A collaborative fiction written by me and Solis Knight, you don't have to know the games to enjoy this original story. Read inside for further info.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I'm not usually fond to these author's note shenanigans... but I shall make an exception for once. This is my first collaborative fiction: a small project me and Solis Knight have come out with in just a few hours. This is going to be a peculiar Final Fantasy VII/Klonoa crossover in which (similar to my Tails saga), everything has been basically reinvented for the sake of a more "logical" narration. This story happens in our world, in some unspecified zone of Germany, in the village of Nibelheim (which you know from the game). Chapter 1 has been written by me, Solis will write chapter 2 and so on... This fic is striclty experimental because of the two crossing styles, therefore expect some weird narrative contraption from now on.**

**With that being said, I wish you a good reading...**

**See you in Chaos.**

**Madhog thy Master 3:16.**

**P.S. This story will also be published on Solis Knight's account.**

* * *

**ATARAXIA**

* * *

**1.**

As the dreadfully enchanting light of the blissful flames enlightened the age old room, its dust covered inhabitants seemed to glee in utter joyfulness. The light meant consideration, and for a book, which only purpose in life is to be read, it meant the world... The old library had definitely seen better days, or so the unmistakable trace of the merciless webs and spiders spread all over the room, suggested. Even the blazing fireplace couldn't give to this ancient bookshelf's misery the proper justice, but, on the other hand, the figure that lay on the still comfortable armchair could very well be seen in all of its sinister-ness, in the midst of that artificial twilight.

He was a man of average stature, physically speaking, and not so average intelligence… a gift, some would say, to be more of a curse, but that would just be a relative opinion. For this man, his brain was the most prized treasure, along with his overinflated ego… again, relatively speaking. The subtle dim light of the old fireplace managed to illuminate part of his features, revealing to the casual observer a peculiar white lab coat to be this man's trademarked clothes. The entire atmosphere seemed to revolve around this individual and his current course of actions: he was reading a book, which gave this library a reason to exist; his glasses' covered eyes were fixed on the humble unspecified volume that happened to be his current object of analysis… their ominous shininess only improved his mystery. A strange smirk appeared on his lips as he apparently managed to find the term he was looking for on the manuscript…

"**Ataraxia:_ A rare mental condition, a state of mind, by which the individual is unable to feel basilar emotions such as anxiety and/or fear; in ancient Greek, the Ataraxia is considered a state of pure happiness and freedom from the negative emotions."_**

By reading the words "happiness" and "freedom", the man couldn't help but chuckle within himself. In his mind, such preposterous and worthless concepts weren't needed in his own vision of a perfect world… and his experiment just proved him right. With a rather scornful motion, the scientist closed the book and threw it in the fireplace, where its silent screams of agony would have been covered by the burning noise of its ultimate demise. Witnessing such spectacle, left to the doctor a few minutes to think about some of the latest developments in his prized work: the encouraging results of the running tests, the great improvements of both mental and physical skills, the overall amount of goals his science could achieve so far were a definitive testament of his superior intellect, which, obviously, made his glee in delight. There still happened to be, however, some peculiar twists in the Experiment's nature… specifically, the complex nature of his feelings (hence the Ataraxia problem), that only made the doctor's scientific curiosity dance in baffling amusement.

Suddenly, his concentration was ruined by the presence of a second human being, a person the deranged scientist knew all too well.

"Dr. Crescent… Is there any conceivable reason behind your rude interruption of my cognitive process?" He said from behind his still shining glasses; bemusement clearly depicted in his tone and facial features. His assistant's answer didn't late to be spurted out of her mouth.

"… The Experiment has escaped… again." The woman said in a visibly distressed and sighing manner.

"That's the third time this month!" He replied in annoyance… then he just smiled in a very sinister way, which made Dr. Crescent secretly tremble, and added: "Fine… let him 'play' for a while. My 'son' shall learn his lesson… the hard way!"

"It shall be done… professor Hojo." She concluded; disdain hidden in her voice.

* * *

The sun was warm, painfully warm, outside the small rural village of Nibelheim.

Everything looked so peaceful and tranquil, overall happy… just like the façade this world was engulfed in, a cold mask that hid its true denied feelings, its own foundation…

Sorrow.

The most hated among emotions, the most abused and avoided (when possible) and yet, it was such a fundamental part of a one's completion… sometimes, it was even the only real truth of existence, because it meant that you were alive and able to feel, not just pretend to.

As the warm rays crossed the green land, every life form, either animal or vegetal, felt their vital effects; everyone besides the lonely and sad looking child sitting on a broken tree log and hugging his knees tightly.

He was a very peculiar being, indeed. His furry and soft features suggested that his nature wasn't human but still resembled it, anthropomorphically speaking. A shaded green color, cold like his soul (which own existence was yet to be proved) covered the grandest part of his body, except for his torso, his belly and his muzzle… his nose-less muzzle. Long, bewildering fluffy bunny-like ears descended from his roundish head, easily reaching the grassy ground beneath them, giving this child's appearances a bleeding hearted innocence. Red rings circled his wrists and ankles as if they were cuffs marking his own identity… or lack of one. A golden/bronze colored collar, too large for his neck, hanged from his shoulders, a pair of long laces of the same flavor descended from it. Finally, his eyes… his unnaturally, deep red eyes were burning with suppressed feelings he could feel all too well, since they happened to be his only lifeline to this planet. The little kid, whose origins were uncertain, was clearly not of this world; he was something that logically, scientifically, practically speaking shouldn't even exist… and yet, there he was, sat on a log, with the saddest and most moving expression ever seen. His young looking gaze seemed to be frozen into a perpetual frown of pure and genuine unhappiness… something that went far beyond the typical teenage issues… far, far beyond.

He sighed as he hugged his knees even tighter and closed his eyes.

He knew he should be worried, he knew that he should be scared as hell since he was all alone in a world that basically rejected him and for the fact that some very bad people happened to be after him… the same people he had no choice but to call "family"… but instead, he felt absolutely nothing on that particular matter, in fact he couldn't possibly feel anything else besides the one emotion that fully occupied his heart's filling meter. He also knew that he should be worried about not feeling worried and so on… Meta-emotions were the only surrogates.

He couldn't stand the fake tranquility and happiness that surrounded him, it hurt him almost as much as the pain he already felt: the pain of a billion souls who dared to deny Sorrow and tried to erase it from their lives. Suddenly, his breath grew heavier and his heart began beating like obsessed, threatening the fabric of his furry chest… it was happening again, another crisis, another person trying to avoid the sufferance, to reject it in order to live in its own illusion of a perfect world. The ability to feel everyone's own displeasures was a burden beyond human capacity, it was astoundingly painful and hurtful turning such foreign emotions into his own form of sustainment; he was the embodiment of Pain, which granted him with the only name (or rather, title) he's ever known himself with…

King of Sorrow.

Free of worries. Free of fears. Filled with Sufferance… and incapable of Love. That's how he was meant to be, a vessel of pain, when he was created by the professor.

A subtle noise came from the bushes, attracting the small monarch's attention; red eyes fixed on it. What came out of it, was a being he'd never seen in his life, but only because he never actually met human kids. She was a little girl with brown hair and a sweet gaze printed with the typical curiosity of a child of her age. The two diverse creatures gazed each other in silent admiration, occasionally tilting their respective heads in bewilderment. Finally, the stony ice of awkwardness was broken by the childish voice of the girl.

"Uhm… hi? Never seen you before… where are you from?" She asked shyly, only to receive a cold stare in return that only improved her uneasiness. "My name is Marlene… yours?" She tried again and this time an answer actually came out of the creature's small mouth.

"I'm the King of Sorrow." He simply said, with a smooth, young voice full of hinted sadness.

"… It's a weird name." She replied thoughtfully with the typical unawareness of a kid.

"… It's just what I am." He said unemotionally, right before raising from his sitting position, revealing himself to be slightly taller than the 8 years old girl, just enough to be 10; his long ears didn't touch the ground anymore. "… And you? What are you, exactly? The Queen of Questions?" His involuntarily smart reply made the little girl giggle in delight, probably because of the seriousness he showed when he stated his remark.

As he watched the smaller being laughing in untainted humor, he found himself mysteriously attracted by her atypical emotional set: unlike adult people, her feelings seemed to be pure, uncorrupted by that dreadful veil of hypocrisy that seemed to cover the average people… needless to say, he found himself suddenly curious about the outside world and the things it could offer beyond its façade. As if on cue, the little bundle of chucking known as Marlene made an offer he couldn't possibly refuse.

"Would you like to see my home?" The king thought about it for a minute or so, then eventually nodded positively… never actually losing his perpetual sad looking that she was light-heartedly ignoring. "YAY!" She said right before grabbing her newly acquired friend's arm and starting to drag him, rather unceremoniously, towards her hometown.

If he could, he would have regretted his decision.

On the "bright" side, the pain in his torso was gone… at least, for now.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Chapter 2 made by Solis Knight.**

* * *

**2.**

If anything, the cluttered desk sequestered to the side of the equally cluttered room was dismal, and depressing. Not just because of the various instruments that littered its surface, such as various scalpels, needles, vials filled with unidentifiable and unknowable liquids, and sometimes even solids… No, not just because of these things, that would make any normal man cringe. It was the person that sat in it, the man with the white lab coat.

Professor Hojo.

He held in his hands a sheet of paper, filled with text. It must have been a very interesting text, because the professor continued to push his glasses back to the bridge of his nose. They were a loose fit and incessantly slid back to the tip, almost as if they were trying to escape… But nobody would blame them for trying…

Suddenly, all perceptions of solitude were shattered. The doorknob rattled, twisted to the left… The door opened, and in came another white coat. This one was female, what with the shape of her body and the style of her hair. In her arms she held some more papers, with even more text than the one in Hojo's hands currently. However, unlike the scientist reading at the desk, her eyes were not focused on her papers. They had already fixed themselves upon the man who was reading, and who was coincidentally ignoring her. She seemed to know to wait until the man had finished reading his sentence, and just stood there in silence.

Sure enough, not ten seconds later, Hojo put down the sheet of paper and looked up. His eyes were filled with a kind of begrudged annoyance, as if he blamed her for intruding upon his solitude. In reality, he had called her down.

"Lucrecia…" he began. "You had better have news." His tone was quiet… but commanding despite it. The scientist known as Lucrecia adjusted the papers in her hands, as if going over one last time what she was going to say in her head.

"Yes, Professor Hojo. The holding chamber that we set aside for him has been analyzed. The tracking beacons you ordered to be placed on him were all ripped off, even the ones we placed in his sleep." Lucrecia paused, glancing off to the side for a second. Hojo wasn't very forgiving of bad news.

"It seems that he can tell where they are from our feelings, rather than his own, Professor." Lucrecia decided to quit while there was still a chance Hojo wouldn't fly off the handle. Indeed, he seemed almost bemused in his chair, as if this was all a game. His right arm twitched once, before rising into the air. His thumb and middle finger moved purposefully together, and held there for almost a full second before the telltale _snap_ reverberated off of the walls. Almost immediately, another scientist came to the door.

"Yes, Professor?" Lucrecia could tell that this one was just another quivering coward, just one more piece of garbage to be used and tossed away once he had served his purpose. The majority of the staff working in the lab fell under this category. Only Lucrecia and Valentine had lasted the longest under such constant pressure.

"Get me Grimoire. And make it fast!" The would-be scientist bowed, like the servant he was, before retreating at full throttle back down the cavern to the wooden spiral stairs. Lucrecia didn't approve of treating them as slaves, but she also had such a low opinion of such cowards that she really didn't care. It seemed as if Hojo was done with her for the current moment, so she took a step back and re-read one of her many reports.

After the last time the Experiment had escaped, Hojo had personally designed several trackers to ensure that it wouldn't happen again. They had come in the form of special chips of silicone, etched with copper and tiny strips of iron. Somehow, some way, the specimen must have dug them out… Lucrecia Crescent just wondered how he had known they were there. She had no doubt that it was due to the Experiment's peculiar ability to perceive Sorrow… Perhaps it had reverse engineered the pain into feeling, and had figured out where they had been placed?

Lucrecia didn't have long to ponder this hypothesis, as another man entered the room. His dark cloak made him hard to see, nigh invisible in the sparse light of the underground cave. However, his sharp red handkerchief gave him away, as it seemed to catch the light in _just _the right way. The light, almost tan boots that adorned his feet were hardly visible behind his black cape, and Lucrecia had a hard time seeing the various straps and buckles that adorned his long pants, or his chain-like leather belt that held them up. They were all hardly visible in the dark light… but she didn't need to see them to know that they were there. She had spent enough time with the man to know that he never took them off.

"You called?" His voice was low, and matter-of-fact-like. Grimoire knew that he had been called for a task, and he wanted to know what it was. Hojo took another irritating second to replace his spectacles to the top of his nose… No doubt Valentine wanted to crush them into pieces and replace them, just to see what Hojo would do.

"Yes, I did. I want you to go out and find our little 'specimen'. Ensure that he knows _just_ how depressing the outside world can be." Hojo seemed almost amused at this concept, as if the idea of torture was actually pleasing to him. Grimoire usually didn't hesitate, but Lucrecia noticed a distinct frown etch itself upon his normally featureless face.

"Hojo, you've had him in captivity for most of his life. Don't you think this is a little unnecessary?" Hojo laughed. The idea was ludicrous. Nothing was unnecessary to Hojo, nothing was going too far.

"No, I _don't_ think this is a little unnecessary. Unless you want to sound like you're questioning my methods, I suggest you follow my orders, _Valentine_." The smirk on Hojo's face was as evil as the statement. Grimoire left without a word, storming out the door and slamming it behind him. It wasn't unusual; it was just how he was. Nevertheless, Hojo was amused, just as he was every time he got this reaction.

"It seems that he has an affection for our little creature… don't you think, Lucrecia?" He fixed his gaze upon her, now. There was no other option than to agree, no other way to escape the situation. Although she hated herself for saying it, wanted to destroy her own vocal cords before the first syllable had exited her mouth, although she desperately wished she could avoid it, she couldn't stop.

"Yes, Professor Hojo." She fought the incessant urge to wince. The words sounded hollow, even to her.

"We'll have to deal with him eventually…" A bead of sweat appeared upon her brow. He had played her like a fiddle, and now there was no choice but to play this game of chess until checkmate.

"Of course." In her mind, she had just signed his death warrant.

* * *

It wasn't long before his arm had begun to hurt… or so it would have if he could feel physical pain. What with the dragging and all, one might think the little girl was going to throw him in prison, or forcefully taking him hostage. It took a while before the King could finally get onto his own footing and follow behind, and soothe his aching limb… or pretend to.

Around them, the scenery was less than spectacular. He wasn't even sure where they were, exactly… he hadn't been outside for very long to get acquainted with such scenic routes as they were taking. The dirt path the girl had found within seconds had apparently been worn down with frequent use, but for the life of him the King couldn't see anyone ahead or behind them. Wherever they were, they were alone. But despite the solitude, it definitely wasn't _quiet_ solitude. His previous diagnosis of her as the "Queen of Questions" wasn't too far off.

"So where are you from? Are you new around here? Why do you look like that? How old are you? Have you been here long? Do you like playing games?" The girl, Marlene she had called herself, continued on. For every question she asked, there seemed to be ten or twelve more stored away in her head that she was just waiting to ask. The would-be-if-he-could-be distressed monarch tried his best to answer them, but he was simply unable to register them all in his head.

"I'm not quite sure where I'm from… I've lived here all my life. And what do you mean by 'games'?" He was fully aware that he had answered only half of the questions she had asked, but they were the only answers he could come up with to give. Marlene didn't even lessen her stride, and didn't even seem to care that he hadn't answered them all. There were more to come, she was probably reasoning… she could just ask them later.

"You don't know what games are? They're really fun! You run around and do things and laugh and have fun!" Marlene started doing a peculiar kind of walk as she did this. Instead of putting one foot after the other, she made them land in quick succession, resulting in a much faster form of walking that he struggled to adapt to. Since it seemed to him that she was skipping individual steps in favour of bigger ones, he decided to call it "skipping".

"I'm not sure what you mean… could you show me?" Here it was. Before he knew it, he had said it, and it was too late to retract the request. He knew that opening himself up to others was a sure way to invite more Sorrow, to raise his hopes only to have them crushed. But… he just couldn't help it around her. Perhaps it was her cool air of innocence, that kind of naivety that made him believe, if only for a minute, that he was wrong… He shook himself out of it. There was no reason to think that the sorrow he knew all too well wasn't just lying there under the surface. A second later, another pang of agony in his chest reminded him yet again that Sorrow had not gone away. And it never would.

"Err, never mind… Forget what I said." The suffering one tried to take it back, close the doors before she could let the Marlene girl into his conscience… but it was too late. She immediately stopped skipping and turned to face him, even as he averted his gaze. He was just lonely, and she seemed to know it.

"No way! We're gunna have some fun, whether you want to or not!" The girl reached out with her hand, just like that, and playfully pushed him in the chest, before running off. He just stood there, confused about the entire affair, as she ran off into the distance, shouting as she did so:

"Tag! You're it!" Just like that. He was "it", whatever that meant. He raised an eyebrow. This was "fun"? A few meters away, she stopped, seeming to finally realize that he had no clue how to play.

"It's called Tag!" She called back to him, slowing down only slightly. "Just try and catch me! Once you do, it's my turn to chase you!" And then she was gone, dashing away as fast as she could. Intrigued, the monarch decided that he would play her game. Despite knowing full well that he did NOT have nothing to lose in this situation, he played along.

He knew he was slow, what with not having run very far in his life before, but he soon got into the hang of it. After a little while, the space between them started to shorten up, and it decreased more and more every second.

Finally, a moment of triumph! The now improvised chaser reached out with his puffy green/white hand and gently tapped her on the shoulder, before slowing down slightly. She stopped suddenly, with a quizzical look on her face. He stopped too, so they were just staring at each other for a few tense seconds. Marlene broke the silence as if it were natural for her to do so.

"You're supposed to say 'Tag, you're it!' when you tag someone…" She stated slowly, as if he were supposed to know that. He replied with a quiet _oh._ before they continued running again. This time, he was leading, and she was chasing.

They continued this cycle for what must've been an hour before they both tired, and eventually slowed to a halt, panting on the dirt road. Marlene pointed out what she called a "Nibelheim" in the distance, and the monarch saw what he identified as a collection of houses next to big mountains. She set off after it, and now it was his turn to ask questions.

"What's a 'Nibelheim'?" She laughed, in that innocent kind of laugh that you'd expect from a child.

"It's a town, silly! That's where I live." Immediately, he realized what should have been obvious. He hadn't noticed the ever-increasing pangs of agony in his chest that came with the neglect of Sorrow. More and more people were nearby, trying to forget their worries and pains and live their lives. For the umpteenth time in his life, he held back tears. Why did everyone hate Sorrow? Why? What had it ever done to them?

Marlene walked next to him, blissfully unaware of the pain he felt in his heart. To be young and innocent… without the pain of sorrow weighing down upon her… if he could, he would envy her.

They arrived in the town soon after. The people were out in the streets, but there weren't that many. It was a small village, after all. From what he could gather, the various citizens were just out living their normal lives. Getting their groceries from the item store, talking with friends, eating, it was all just an existence for them. Just what they had to do to survive…

A couple children ran out of their homes, probably from seeing Marlene at the gates. One of them tripped, skidding for a few feet upon the ground before dusting himself off and running after the other two. Was this what Marlene called "friends"?

"Hey, guys. Look what I found!" Marlene was all excited, as if the monarch was the coolest thing she had ever seen before. From the looks in the other kids' eyes, though… he didn't think that he would receive the same reaction.

"Who're you?" One kid said.

"_What_'re you?" Another asked.

"Wait up guys!" The third one yelled from behind. Marlene was the first to respond.

"He's the King of Sorrow." She said, matter-of-factly, as if it was an undeniable fact, and they should believe her. The other kids looked quizzically at her for a second, before returning their gaze to the weird creature she had brought with her.

The monarch felt the pain stronger than ever now… they weren't like Marlene. He could feel their sorrows, their neglected pain and suffering down beneath the surface. He could _feel_ how the kid who had tripped was ignoring the scrapes in his knees that were more painful that he was letting on. The King _felt_ how the first boy had recently broken his bike, and could no longer ride on it… whatever a 'bike' was, that is. Apparently, not all human children were like Marlene… She was unique.

"Um… hi." The bunny-eared creature held his right arm with his left, lowering his gaze as he did so. Marlene was right… he was lonely. He didn't know how to act around others. The kids could almost sense it too, and just like any other children… They singled him out as a target.

"You're weird!" The first boy accused him, as if it were his fault.

"Yeah! You can't hang out with us 'cuz you're weird!" The other one followed behind.

"What are you guys talking about?" The third boy finally caught up to the others. Marlene was furious at the boys, her yelling only adding to the confusion.

"What do you mean he's weird? He's just like us! Why can't he play with us?" To the monarch's dismay, the other boys had an answer.

"Because you have to be like us if you want to play. That's the rule!" The first boy set the decree. Just like that, it was law.

"Yeah! Get out of here, weirdo!" The second boy ran up and pushed him back, only to hurt himself into the surprisingly resilient torso of the baffling bunny-like being. Stymied, he decided to lead the boys away instead, and the others turned and followed like sheep. Just like that, the peculiar king was banished. His ever so frowning expression never changed as his body was silently digesting the unbearable pain of rejection these mean, pink creatures were throwing at him… tears hardly contained.

Without saying a word, he just turned his back to them and ran off, leaving Marlene behind.

The aching within his heart intensified sharply. It was like another hundred people were adding to the pain at once, just like that. _Snap!_ And more displeasure piled on. It took him only a few seconds to realize…

It was his own Sorrow fuelling his pain.

From the shadows behind a house in the normally quiet town of Nibelheim, Grimoire Valentine watched per his orders, silently amused. He wouldn't have to lift a finger to do Hojo's dirty work after all.

Still, he mused… He felt a pang of sorrow for the little one. Nobody should have to feel that pain.


	3. Chapter 3

**3.**

It has been too long since the day of his departure, since the day of the call. Too many tears have been denied, too much pain has been suppressed… for this heart shattered widow was forced to hid her torments by the peculiar circumstances of her established livelihood. This façade she felt necessary was slowly consuming her now visibly aged features; no one either knew or could imagine what was like living like this… with a perpetual, maternal, fake smile printed on her face, without anyone to confess her true bleeding feelings. As she found herself lost in her current Hong Kong express of thoughts, a platter fell from her hand while she was setting the table for lunch, shattering its frail form to the marble floor. The falling process of such item was registered in her mind in an ominous slow-motion, as if she witnessed the rotting crushing of her own life. Metaphorically speaking, it was just that.

Her husband, the father of her daughter, left for the army… and never returned; and yet, despite the devouring sensation of tearful crisis right at the edge of her eyes, she once again forced herself to neglect this emotional freedom, for the sake of her role, for the sake of her innocent, little girl. She would do anything for her and this, in her mind, was just a small prize to pay for keeping her happy. Such woman was Elmyra, growing frail each day as she feigned strength, a human being too selfless for her own good… and, ironically, too egotistical for the same reason.

While absorbed in the act of picking up the platter's rests from the ground, she accidentally cut her finger… or maybe, it wasn't accidental. Maybe, just maybe, she did it on purpose, perhaps in the attempt to distract herself from her non-physical pain… it was her only accessible escape from reality. As if on cue, Reality made its rather loud presence noticed through the high perched voice of her precious daughter.

Marlene entered her house at lightning speed, clearly and openly distressed by some recent event; as soon as her blurry figure made its way towards the kitchen, her mother cleverly hid her finger behind her back in order to protect her child from yet another possible threat at her innocence.

Such was Elmyra… just human.

* * *

_**A last kiss. A last goodbye. A last glance. Then pure voidness. She cried, long and hard, cried at the leaving train, cried at his vanishing, greeting form, cried her way home… only to stop, right before entering. Her baby was still sleeping and she didn't want to wake her… not now, not ever. Her daughter needed to remain blissful, happy, ignorant… she would have never cried again.**_

_**Several years, she would eventually receive news about her husband's death… she didn't cry, she kept everything inside, she let the pain consume her… **_

_**Her child remained blissful.**_

As the hurtful memory died down in his twistingly aching chest, he slowly managed to recover a half standing position; tears purring out from his red (and reddened) eyes.

Long contained sorrows were the worst to digest for the unwilling green ruler of said emotions and this one in particular almost made him coughing blood, such was the stubborn rejection from its distressed owner… an owner he acknowledged as the Queen of Questions' mother.

Motherhood… a peculiar concept he's been instructed on by Dr. Crescent, the only scientist he had a positive relationship with.

As far as he could understand, this Elmyra person strictly denied his torments because, in her opinion, building a fort of lies around her child, was the only way to protect her from this world's sufferance. Such foolishness, such preposterous ignorance towards the undeniable importance of truthful emotions like the most vital one, was what made the King angry… or at least, wanting to be. This recent soul reading definitely helped him clarify the Marlene's mystery: she was sorrow-less because of a simple façade… but façades, as we know, are meant to be uncovered and when that would happen, the little girl wouldn' t have been able to resist the shock. Humans were such weird creatures, full of issues and issues made by other issues, even self-made… and all because, for some reason, they failed to express their inner feelings and kept everything inside. Marlene was different, Marlene could manifest her true self at will, she was free of any form of hypocrisy all the adults couldn't help but live with. But now, due to her mother's involuntary sins, she would have been ruined… like anyone else.

The King of Sorrow sat on a rock beside a small lake, entranced by the troubles-free beauty of the liquid mineral and once again bothered by his lack of worries, which was an issue per se (meta-emotionally speaking), and still feeling distraught because of that recent experience with that girl's friends… thus denying the previous statement about his lack of worries. Without a precise reason, not that he needed one, he let one of his fingerless feet touch the warm water of the lake, causing so a disturbance in its tranquil harmony.

Even here, Sorrow wasn't welcomed.

"Please… show yourself, now." He slowly but convincingly stated, all of a sudden, to no apparent individual. "I sensed your presence a long time ago… Dr. Valentine." He added, clarifying our doubts.

Grimoire was a man of few words, few emotions, few everything… except for his intelligence. He knew all too well that, when it came to this kid, hiding was perfectly useless but yet, it was still part of his nature… one of the few things he couldn't fight against. The black and red dressed scientist eventually decided to abandon the relative security of the woods for a more in-your-face approach with the so-called Experiment. KoS turned his round head to gaze his supposed-to-be captor in the eyes… which happened to be as red as his. The two of them stood there for a few seconds, staring at each other in a distorted form of curiosity that neither of them could clearly explain. As far as KoS could remember, the doctor and himself had always had a strange relationship; unlike Dr. Crescent, who felt sympathy for him, and Dr. Hojo, who was a gunning sadist, Dr. Valentine always kept himself distant from him, never, even once, uttering a word or a greet. Despite the fact that the small manmade wonder could read his deepest sorrows like an open book, Grimoire was still a mystery even for him.

"You're here to bring me back home." It wasn't a question, it was a statement the one pronounced by the alien bunny. "And even though you feel bad for me… you can't disobey Hojo's orders because he threatened your son's life." A small cringe of hurtfulness could be registered in the usually emotionless tone of the boy, due to the well-known awful level of his unwilling empathy.

Grimoire closed his eyes and took a long breath, as if ready to answer his interlocutor, when his PHS began ringing. He took the noisy device and, without diverting his glacial gaze from the kid's, answered it. By the hardly noticeable change in his facial expression, KoS could easily guess who was lying on the other side of the line…

After a few seconds of silence, the improvised "genetic experiments' patroller" spoke back.

"Yes, professor Hojo." He said coldly, right before interrupting the communication; eyes still fixed on the prey. Then, he just went away without uttering a single word or a greet, as always.

If he could, he would have probably felt confused for the hunter's sudden retreat… instead, the suffering child just watched him go, without even bothering to feel preoccupation, or bothering for feeling bothered by preoccupation, and so on and on…

It didn't take too long for a certain someone else to appear out of nowhere, almost immediately after.

"Excuse me? Are you… the Prince of Soho?" An adult, female voice asked in painfully obvious shyness.

_**The Prince of Soho… I wish I'd know how to make a sarcastic reply. **_Thought the object of the scornful misspelling, right before turning his gaze towards the owner of said voice… a middle aged, humble dressed woman he immediately recognized.

"You're… Marlene's mother." He stated, rather than asked, with an abnormal amount of pain in his tone, right before collapsing on the ground with both his hands grabbing his heart.

Maternal instincts kicked in as the woman immediately darted towards the seemingly helpless and shaking body of the poor child, not even wondering why he was dressed in that weird furry costume since it wasn't Halloween yet.

Needless to say, she'll eventually find out the truth about his peculiar "masquerade"… and, maybe, just maybe, about herself too.

* * *

They say there's no rest for the wicked… in Hojo's case, such litany seemed to find a proper placement. It's been uncounted years since the scientist's latest full night of sleep, a peculiar condition that was probably pushed towards its utter implosion due to his maniacal dedication over his work. Over the past few solar cycles, ever since the Experiment's initial tests, Hojo has been studying… trying to find an explanation, either logical or not, over the unpredictable developments of the project. At first, he searched the solution in his beloved science, only to miserably fail as he realized that his own matter couldn't find the wanted answer. Then, he tried with religion, but it was even more worthless, it only inflated his ego to Godlike standards. Finally, out of pure frustration, he began reading thousands and thousands of philosophy's books… until his enhanced attention span eventually fell on a very interesting term that the Epicureans used to consider a synonymous for pure happiness. Ataraxia signified the detached and balanced state of mind by which a person could transcend the material world for the sake of a superior comfortableness. Needless to say, when his brain managed to swallow this overwhelming concept, his both scientific and human curiosities began tilting like a pinball; it sounded like the perfect solution, simple and complex at the same time. Now he knew exactly what went wrong with the Experiment… it was neither the Mako energy nor the original DNA specimen, it was a complex emotional matter. Currently absorbed in his latest mental analysis, beak nose glued on a book, Hojo couldn't help but chuckle in genuine amusement. A chuckle that almost immediately turned into more shaped laughs, until it finally broke into the purest form of maniacal laughter a man could possibly muster.

The unmistakable solution to this age old charade was at hand's reach… all he needed now, was just a confirmation.

Dr. Lucrecia Crescent entered the poorly cleaned library the good old crazed professor used to spend grand part of his time in; she was as pale as a ghost, probably due to the man's over manifested good mood.

"Aaaah, Lucrecia… My dear lab assistant, I was just about to summon you on my regal presence. I have some outstanding news!" Hojo amusingly muttered from the villainous half darkness of his seat. He closed his book with added emphasis. She swallowed in both shyness and disgust.

"Did Dr. Valentine captured V… I mean, the Experiment?" She corrected herself right before accidentally spitting out that tabooed name. The shining intensity of the head scientist's smile could be seen from the lightlessness of his spot.

"He was about to… but I ordered him otherwise. He shall just observe and report, for now." He proudly stated.

"But… why?" The woman's confusion grew stronger along with her already established uneasiness.

At this point, the man known as Hojo rose from his armchair and ever so slowly walked towards the still form of Lucrecia, one emphatic step over another, until he was close enough to be actually seen. He was a middle aged man with long black hair tied up in a ponytail, with ominous blank glasses covering his eyes and a deviated smirk as a further proof of his madness. The woman of the same age found herself frozen in terror... she knew all too well what that gleeful expression meant, first hand. Her superior eventually decided to grant her the answer.

"… Because our little boy needs to see exactly how 'fun' this world can be." And then, he once again began to laugh. If she could, Lucrecia would have yelled.


	4. Chapter 4

**4.**

**X Year, X Month, X Day **

**Project Codename: King of Sorrow commenced.**

The words jumped out at her, erased all others from the rest of the page except those. It was as if they were larger than life, set in ultra bold and underlined text, sized to a million inches, made to engrave themselves into her retinas as soon as she looked at them… Lucrecia could not take her eyes off of them. When she had found the book lying on the floor of the Professor's office, deep underground of the Mansion… She knew that it had the answers she needed. Yet, despite her curiosity, these two lines were all that she had been able to read for the past several hours. She hadn't been able to count… perhaps she had been sitting there all her life, perhaps it was just her skeleton standing in the windowed room of the second floor of the Mansion turned Laboratory… her skeleton compelled to read this text for the rest of eternity. The doctor blinked… the first time in what felt like ages. Lowering the book cleverly hidden behind numerous other scrolls and texts that she had accumulated, she gazed out of some of the only windows that graced the walls of the Laboratory. Outside, far away in the distance, laid the town of Nibelheim… the last reported location of their runaway specimen. He… _it_, was the reason she had betrayed her boss by reading the book. Lucrecia shifted the weight of the various papers onto her left hand, reaching into her pocket to grab her PHS. With shaky fingers, she dialled the mobile of Grimoire, the man sent to watch over the Experiment. It rang six times exactly… not that she was counting. She wasn't insane… No, not insane at all. At least, no more insane than anyone else foolish enough to work for Hojo.

Grimoire waited a few moments before answering. "You rang… Doctor Crescent?" She gulped involuntarily, her words of only hours ago still haunting her conscience. Lucrecia had a feeling that she was the only one in the building who still had one.

"Yes… Doctor Valentine. What is your status on the Experiment?" Her throat was dry… her voice was hoarse. Grimoire could undoubtedly tell, but if it mattered to him at all he kept it to himself.

"Line of sight broken on target." Lucrecia could tell by the monotony of his voice that he was bored of answering this mantra, for he had undoubtedly spoken it at least thirty times in the last few hours. Not all of them from Lucrecia… but most of them.

"Assumed movements are toward the town of Nibelheim. He has apparently fallen unconscious… Care is being administered by a middle aged woman… one Elmyra of Nibelheim." A slight pause on the other end of the line. "Have my orders changed, Doctor?" He sounded hopeful… slightly. It was hard to tell over the phone.

"No, Doctor. Continue monitoring, but take care that this… Elmyra, was it? That she does not destroy all of our… all of _Hojo's_ hard work… Carry on." The line went dead. She had a strong suspicion that he had terminated the call before she had even finished her sentence. Lucrecia didn't blame him. Still, just hearing the man's name wasn't nearly as bad as having to say it herself…

She returned her gaze to the small town in the distance… Even now, the experiment was heading there. Was he hurt? How had Grimoire lost sight of him? Who was this Elmyra? These questions would have consumed her, had there not been a more pressing concern weighting her down. Indeed, the book she had risked her job and possibly her life for felt even heavier in her hands, knowing that it was her one hope to diagnose the strange behavior of the specimen. Maybe, just maybe… by re-examining his past, she could save the suffering monarch from himself. Call it maternal instinct, call it compassion, call it whatever it looked like, she could not bring herself to cause the child more pain. Yes… she had called it a child… It was the first time Lucrecia had done so since she had laid eyes on the boy. The boy… If she were the least bit rational, she would never be thinking such things. Her scientific mind rationalized that this wasn't a boy, it wasn't a child, and it wasn't even human… But she could not bring herself to treat _him_ like _he_ was dirt. Even if it killed her she was going to protect the child. _Her_ child. She opened the book once more, and read the first passage. Hojo's writing was scrawling, and difficult to read in the easiest of words, but she pressed on.

**X Year X Month X Day**

**Project Codename: King of Sorrow commenced.**

"_**I have ordered my flunkies to set up in the abandoned cave adjacent to the containment chambers. Mako levels are abnormally high tonight, indicating a high level of success. The staff is worried that we are playing God… the fools! There is no God, unless they are talking about **__**me!**__**I shall have to remind them of that…"**_

That day came clearer within her memories than any other… not because it was the most awe inspiring thing she had ever seen, no. She remembered that day because her deeds had disgusted her so much that she couldn't bear to forget what she had done.

* * *

"Before we begin, we should consider the scientific morals _against_ doing this sort of procedure! I mean, experiments like these were never supposed to be conceived by man! We're playing god, gentlemen – don't you think He knows better? We should-" The man's speech of dissuasion was cut short by a gunshot from across the room. Doctor Crescent didn't have to turn her head and look to know who had fired the smoking gun, either. Professor Hojo's favourite handheld instrument of death was the only gun capable of such an accurate shot, for the man had sprouted a bullet hole in the short space between the former spokesperson's eyes.

"Now then… If anyone else has any 'moral imperatives' to share?" Nobody raised their voice.

"Good. Doctor Crescent, begin the procedure." Hojo motioned with his gun for her to place the seed within the chamber. It was a simple procedure, really, calling up the Lifestream to create a new consciousness… Nothing could go wrong. Various odd contraptions had their business ends facing a small trape-squaroidal box, a paradox of nature in and of itself. It was in this box that she placed the seed for the experiment, bits of living tissue that would spark the growth of a new being. In a circle around the box, behind the various machines that were facing it, Hojo's flunkies were standing watch. They were supposed to be running numerous tests right after the other, but the Professor was paying these idiots to be less intelligent than him, so naturally they had no initiative of their own.

"Well, are you idiots going to just stand there, or are there tests to be run?" She shouted at the nervous flunkies, who immediately began a flurry of typing upon the keyboards. One called out from the other end of the room.

"Temperature optimal." It was female, one of the only ones on the staff besides Lucrecia. She wouldn't last long. Another called out, this one next to the doctor.

"Mako levels rising… if we don't start now, the stream will do it for us!" Panic was entering the man's voice. Behind the spooked doctor, Grimoire stepped forward.

"Lucrecia… Is there any danger in proceeding?" His voice was calm, as if to spite the moment's obvious nature of fear. The doctor shook her head.

"The lifestream could kill us all." Lucrecia said simply. She flinched as a gunshot rang over her head, and Hojo spoke.

"That's a risk I'm willing to take. Start the experiment!" Seemingly all at once, the other flunkies ignored Doctor Crescent's warnings and ran their various machines. The "room", which was really merely a cave deep underground the Laboratory, began to shake violently as the Lifestream resonated nearby. Almost immediately after the shaking subsided, a faint emerald glow could be seen below the box, and of course, every machine in the room began to code red. Naturally, code red was not the "Everything's going according to plan" color, it was the "We're all gunna die!" color. Lucrecia pushed the nearest lab rat from his machine and took over, and simply ignored the readings on the screen which were indicating air pressure exceeding that of ten atmospheres. She overrode the machine's function-lock set by Hojo and ran the command prompt. A few keystrokes later and she had a homemade virus to save everyone's asses.

"I'm going to abort! This thing is out of control!" Lucrecia shouted, ignoring yet another warning shot fired above her head and the raving screams of Professor Hojo as she initiated the virus. It spread to the other machines like a pandemic, causing every device to discharge their loads immediately. Thousands of watts of energy simultaneously exploded out of the machines and imploded upon reaching the trape-squaroidal containment field. A blinding flash erupted within the room, causing all people within to shield their eyes. Naturally, a few stray bolts of pure Mako shot out, killing almost half of the flunkies in the room and nearly grazing Doctor Crescent's own face. It was odd to see, as the flash died down, the Lifestream claiming the bodies of so many as it simultaneously gave new life in front of her eyes. Finally, each machine in turn lost power, and the hum of electricity was completely erased from the room. All there was to see was a handful of scientists scared shitless, Doctor Lucrecia, Doctor Valentine, Professor Hojo, and a glorious defiance of Nature lying in a pool of molten rock and metal. It was amazing that the procedure had succeeded, let alone that the creature had survived a bath of molten material. Almost of its own will, the liquid solidified, and the new creature opened its eyes for the first time. It was not human, nor beast, nor any animal she had ever seen. It felt like its striking red irises could see right past her flesh and bone, right through her neural paths, until they pierced her soul. Even though she knew that such feelings were merely her body's way of dealing with a natural human fear of the unknown… but it didn't stop the chill that ran down her spine.

* * *

**X Year X Month X Day**

**Experiment moved to biochemical conductive capsule for analysis.**

"_**The other scientists are raving about our apparent "success". They are such fools. Am **__**I**__** the only one who sees the truth? At any moment, the Mako could reject the transfusion, or the Experiment could simply die of its own volition! It has happened before… ungrateful specimens that have dropped off the mortal coil, as if just to spite me for everything I have given it! Not this time… not this time. Doctor Crescent mentioned a peculiar feeling to me today, something about ghost tingles or some other unscientific explanations. I wouldn't pay any attention to it if it hadn't had anything to do with the Specimen. I shall have to observe it closely."**_

The doctor would have ripped that particular page out of the book in anger from such an insult to her character, had the threat of torture not been hanging above her head. Hojo would kill her if he even knew she was reading this. Still fuming, Lucrecia tried to remember everything from that day, which she had almost forgotten.

She and Doctor Valentine had been ordered to move the creature to a new holding chamber, one of those clear capsules that were filled with liquid. Hojo had personally administered the sedative to the Specimen, which had knocked it right out. As Grimoire hefted the tiny creature into his arms, Lucrecia opened the currently vacant chamber, before reaching inside and pulling out the breathing apparatus. Doctor Valentine placed the creature inside, and Lucrecia placed the device over the creature's nose and mouth, tightening the straps securely. Doctor Valentine closed the door to the capsule, and Lucrecia turned on the machine. A greenish liquid poured in from the top, dousing the creature thoroughly. It took nearly ten minutes for the capsule to fill completely, after which Lucrecia filed her report and the two scientists left the room. It was odd, though… because she could feel that same spine-tingling sensation behind her as she left. Valentine took a left and disappeared, so Lucrecia turned slowly to observe the specimen. Its eyes were open, and they were staring at her… almost as if it were looking for its mother, or maybe it was simply studying her. Either way… it was not a pleasant feeling, so she left in a hurry. Hojo had simply brushed her off when she had told him… but apparently he had taken a little more interest than she had thought.

* * *

**X Year X Month X Day**

**Specimen completed Growth Phase 1. Species confirmed to be unknown.**

"_**Lucrecia was right about this feeling she was having. This creature seems to have an abnormal capability far exceeding expectations. Its eyes… their visible red hue is striking… perhaps they see more than just pictures. Further study revealed that not only has it taken the Mako energy infusion procedure, it has already begun to absorb the Mako saturated in the fluid around it. Growth rates have astonished even me! Doctor Crescent says I should move him to a larger tank, but that's just nonsense. There's still a 23.4% space capacity left for it to grow! So what if its ears make it a little cramped… it's not like it has **__**feelings**__**."**_

Lucrecia fumed once more at Hojo's heartlessness. She had known the man had no conscience, but this was taking things too far. At least she felt better knowing that the day after this entry had been written, Lucrecia had taken it upon herself to move the specimen to a much larger tank. The creature didn't take its eyes off of her for a second, even when she was carrying it in her arms to the next tank. As she placed it inside and filled the capsule, she felt the strangest sensation. The doctor didn't know if it was simply the knowledge that she had done a good deed, or if the gratitude she sensed in the creature's dark red eyes was rubbing off of her. Frowning, Lucrecia flipped a few pages ahead, until she found one of the subheadings she had been looking for.

* * *

**X Year X Month X Day**

**Specimen tried to escape, but failed. More constant watch prescribed.**

"_**That ingrate, trying to ruin all of my hard work! Granted, leaving only one guard outside its room had been a small oversight, but how could I have known that leather straps were ineffective? No, I refuse to believe that this was my fault. The guard has been injected with a lethal dose of Mako drenched serum, and I have personally dumped his immobile carcass below a tree to be eaten by the wolves. Such failure cannot be tolerated! I'll strap him down in iron shackles next time… All I wonder is how he escaped so far from his cage next to the study… Doctor Crescent should have not moved him so soon from the capsule to his own room. I will have to talk to her tomorrow…"**_

Lucrecia remembered that day. She had come down the stairs to the basement with reports in her hand when she saw him, the specimen, with leather straps dangling from his ankles. The doctor froze, before realizing that she was the only thing between him and the stairs. The specimen's eyes… they were up to their old tricks again, seeing right past her… Seeing whether she would have the strength to stop him, no doubt. That was the first time she had heard it speak… the first time she knew that it was a male for certain.

"You don't want to let me escape, Doctor Crescent, do you?" It simply said. Lucrecia was stunned, for she had been thinking those exact words at that moment. She couldn't let him escape… Hojo would kill her.

"You're afraid Hojo will find out. That's why you're reaching into your pocket…" Lucrecia's hand froze, inches away from the PHS that she could have used to call the guards. The specimen took a step forward, and Lucrecia took a step back. For an instant, she considered letting him go… and to hell with the consequences…

"I don't want to hurt you, Doctor Crescent… You've done more for me than anyone else in this place. So please… trust your instincts. Let me pass, and you can go deliver your report to your boss." Lucrecia gulped… his voice was so persuasive, not to mention it was completely right. Closing her eyes for a moment, she considered it logically, like the scientist she was. On the one hand of the scales, she weighed her undeniable feelings for the creature's wellbeing, and the fact that it would escape one way or another… On the other hand, she considered the possibility that Hojo would find out… but there were a multitude of excuses she could use.

Finally, she opened her eyes and stepped aside. He merely nodded in gratitude before taking off toward the stairs like a child who has just learned to run just by watching others. It hit her that she had just allowed a specimen that she had worked on for years escape before her eyes, and she had just let it happen. Lucrecia was thankful that Hojo did not possess the strange ability the specimen seemed to have, for the doctor would have surely been tortured for this…

* * *

She flipped another couple of pages, looking for the other escape attempt. She found it after another 15, which were all filled with growth rates and the failures of Hojo's inept assistants.

**X Year X Month X Day**

**The Experiment escaped again. These failures cannot be tolerated!**

"_**My staff seems to be as inept as that damn Lucrecia! This is the second time! How does it know how to escape this easily?! I keep finding the guards I stationed outside its room on the floor, unconscious. This time, the creature seems to have stolen the keys to its shackles, and broken out using another set pilfered from the same guard's unconscious body! Ugh, I can't afford to keep killing my guards this way… Perhaps I should just poison them normally from now on, and let Nibelheim wonder all it wants. I have ordered Grimoire, my only competent doctor, to fetch the Specimen this time… I will deal with this problem personally."**_

Lucrecia had been involved with this escape as well, except she had merely watched from the window as he ran out into the dark. Rushing down the stairs to the basement, she found unconscious guards strewn about the cave floor, all seemingly incapacitated with a swift blow to the head. It was uncanny how efficient he must have been, to take them all out by himself. Heading into the creature's room, she found his shackles dropped unceremoniously onto the floor, with the guard that had been ordered to feed him lunch right beside them. The key had been left in the shackle, almost as if he were trying to taunt the scientists by leaving it. Turning around, she had found the other key left in the keyhole of the door, yet another blatant insult to the scientists' intelligence. Grinning, despite the fact that it should have been a _bad_ thing that the specimen had escaped, she walked down to the lab to give the news to Hojo. Perhaps she was just happy to give her boss bad news… yeah, that was probably it.

* * *

The journal ended at this page, for some reason. The rest of the pages were left blank. Perhaps, Lucrecia speculated, Hojo had become so paranoid by the second escape that he no longer trusted his journal. Maybe her boss actually believed that the specimen had even been reading it himself, to pull off these fantastic escapes. In either case, the journal had turned up no new clues of the specimen. Stymied for the moment, she decided to return the book before Hojo found out that she had taken it. Lucrecia took one last look out the window at the faraway village before she turned to walk out that door. If only there was more she could do than sit here in this useless laboratory…


	5. Chapter 5

**5.**

_**Shining beauty spurting out of earth within a majestic wave filled with mystery and unknown knowledge… such was the overwhelming feeling the greatest Nature's enigma would transplant into a human soul. The Mako Fountain, the sole reason of this project's very existence, was lying a few short steps from the main character of this hidden sorrow… blood spilling out of his wounds in a sadistically slow fashion; the proud artisan of said wounds was just in front of him.**_

_**Inhuman (or should I say, too human) diabolical laughs filled the energy intoxicated atmosphere of the mountain cave.**_

_**The perfect hiding place for a murder, indeed.**_

_**As gruesome droplets of vital fluid waterfell from the punished man's mouth, a pain even greater of the one he was already experiencing manifested itself through his sour mouth… a single line of words he would repeat over and over again…**_

"_**Where's… Vincent?" Then he drowned in his own blood.**_

* * *

An aching pain caused him to fall unconscious, and another aching pain brought him back to the waking world; it was just his routine. His fuzzy hand seemed to be glued in the perpetual motion of holding his blood pulsing heart (or whatever vital organ he possessed) while thick air was being released from his lungs as a further proof of his latest illness. The sorrowful memory he'd just felt wasn't something new to him, as a glamorously matter of fact. It was one of the most painful hidden memories of Dr. Grimoire Valentine, the man whose deep comprehension managed to slip even the King of Sorrow's knowledge, the man who was forced to work for and punished by Hojo due to a certain sin he dared to commit… the father whose own son was deprived from his loving embrace.

The hurt green wonder of un-nature couldn't help but feel a great amount of discomfort, greater than usual, towards this particular memory and the combined ones of another person he happened to know very well… if he could, he would have been baffled, for there was something, in all of this story, that was missing; a secret sub-plot, a disfiguring twist, an absent clue that lay high upon his or anyone else's reach, mocking him, laughing at his miseries just like the deranged professor would do.

The professor… the only human he could not scope for hidden sorrows because he had none, he only had irritation. In KoS's head, his creator, his God (as the madman would want to be revered), was the key to the Chamber of Secrets' keyhole. The monarch already knew everything about his own genesis, especially the untold part, but the relationship that intertwined between that event and the mystery man known as Grimoire was yet to be apprehended.

After the returning trip of his Hong Kong express of thoughts, the fluffy eared boy finally had the chance to look at his current surroundings, which, fruitless to say, happened to be enormously different from the cold, dark and humid ones he was used to, back in the mansion. As his heart melting red eyes adjusted to the invasive, bright twilight coming from the window, he could finally notice the somewhat hypocritical lack of negativity that was literally engulfing the disturbingly pink walls of the room he found himself in.

Annoyingly girlish was perhaps the closest comment possible to properly describe such preposterous place… a place meant to stand as a fake heaven to protect its owner from the dangers of the outside, mortal world. A world filled with Pain…

The bed was rather comfortable though, if he could appreciate it that is.

Just a few centimetres from his barely awaken form, sat on a small toy chair, lay the unique source of all unjustified in-your-face, happy feelings. Marlene was staring at him with a very preoccupied gaze that immediately turned into an obnoxiously content one; her smile was broader than a sunshine based, feeling good motivational song performed by a choir of colourful, dumb TV puppets... she seemed to be THAT relieved. The King of Sorrow's expression, on the other hand, was as blank and unemotional as ever, once again creating the perfect antithetic balance between the two of them… some sort of Yin and Yang, so to speak.

"You okay? You've been asleep for so long…" The cheerful one stated.

"I'm fine." The glooming one slowly replied, not wanting this conversation to go any further.

They both stared at each other for quite a while in silence, once again carefully studying each other, until their frailly built mantra was shattered by the intrusion of a third party member, Marlene's mother, to be more accurate.

As soon as the middle aged woman entered the room holding a fine snack platter, the seemingly peaceful and carefree atmosphere of the room changed abruptly. A figurative cloud of suffering darkness followed her every move, bringing all the torment of the Real World she was desperately trying to hide from her beloved daughter's heart… but she could not hide them from KoS's. Her smile, the caring but fake smile eternally printed on her hurt consumed facial features was just the proverbial peek of the iceberg… an iceberg that was slowly crushing not just her inner self, but her unexpected guest as well.

"How are we feeling today?" She asked to the bedridden creature while motioning positively to her precious, precious child, who smiled back "Here's some fine nourishment for our little guest!" She added with all the enthusiasm she managed to muster… which was a lot, surprisingly enough.

It was in that precise moment that Elmyra's own gaze fixed itself upon the greenish child's crimson one for the first time. He stood there, sat on her daughter's bed in her daughter's bedroom, eyes wide open literally glued at her form, as if they were scoping for her soul, seeing things no one should see. A venomous chill ran down her spine, basically freezing her body; she didn't know how or why, but she felt as if she was being judged by some superior entity that knew just about everything about her… all of her sins, all of her crimes, all of her human mistakes.

He would still stare at her with his huge, inescapable eyes of divine judgement, as if seeking for her mental breakdown, for her inevitable confession.

"Mom?" The unexplainable hold he had on her very soul was abruptly interrupted by Marlene's sudden intervention; she seemed to be a little taken aback by her mother's strange rudeness towards their royal guest… the little angel.

Elmyra lowered her gaze to her and did what she could do best: she smiled; then she quickly left the room whispering something about an imminent dinner's guest. KoS's gaze never diverted from her direction, not even once. He was so close…

"Say, if you're a king, where's your castle?" And once again the seemingly heaviness of the atmosphere was broken by a certain little girl's intervention. The boy looked back at her with a questioning look (or better, a would be questioning look).

"I beg your pardon?" He politely asked.

"Yeah, every king as a castle… that's the rule! You can't be a king without a castle…" Then she thought it for a second and added: "or a queen, for that matter. Do you have a queen? Can I be your queen and live in your castle?" The cute girl said with a disturbingly dreaming expression; creepy sparkles floating around her face. "Do you have a pony ranch?" She insisted, earning the usual unemotional glare from her would be "charming prince on a white errrrr… pony!"

Despite the fact that he had absolutely no idea of how a pony looked like, he couldn't help but feel, or pretended to feel, aggravated by the knowledge of how real kings used to live. If he was, indeed, a monarch, then why he was not ruling anything? Where was his castle? What happened to his queen and his pony ranch? What happened to his birth right? The more he would think about it, the more he would begin to feel a whole new different emotion… not just pretend to. Suddenly, he snapped out of the trance; a new intruder has arrived.

"He's here." He muttered in a low tone, almost to himself, earning a baffled glance from his seemingly younger would be queen.

* * *

At the entrance door, Elmyra was politely welcoming her dinner's guest, a man that she secretly admired beyond regular basis. He seemed to be pleased by her hosting abilities.

"Aaaah, Miss Gainsborough, you look particularly radiant today." He complimented, making her blush like a pre-scholar gal.

"Aww, you're such a gentleman… Professor." And within a small amount of ominous steps, the real Devil better known as Hojo made his way into the façade of Elmyra's heaven; the cloud of darkness has become a storm.

* * *

"The Lifestream… a never ending flux of energy running through this planet's own veins, a limitless source of Power that, scientifically speaking, shouldn't even exist... and yet, here, in this scornful mountains, lies the undeniable proof of his existence: the Mako Fountain, a natural reserve of earthly energy condensed into shaped and manufacturing material. When I was chosen for this task, for this project, by our beloved sponsors, I was thrilled… but most of all, I was blinded by my own ignorance… Yes, you've heard it right! I was a fool because I did not realize what the Lifestream was really all about. I wanted to use the refined Mako energy to create the ultimate weapon! A soulless creature that would have changed Warfare forever! But what I've gotten instead, was nothing but a small, feeble being that couldn't even fetch for himself…

Needless to say, I felt outraged by such preposterousness to the point that I even began to question my abilities as a scientist. Then, the Experiment began showing his peculiar powers… apparently he could assume people's deepest and most suffering secrets, a power that, quite frankly, seemed more like a Damocles' sword, for it caused him more backstabbing pain than anything else. As a result of this discovery, I began to study in hope to find a scientific explanation to this dilemma… only to eventually understand that Science, amazingly enough, wasn't the answer!

Do you recall all the tests we've been running on his endurance? I have to admit I've been quite the sadist at the time, eeh eeh eeh… But that's besides the point; they did nothing but prove that he was impervious to pain, as long as it was physical.

The title "King of Sorrow" couldn't possibly be more appropriate to label him with, he was the embodiment of every one's hidden torments and, amazingly enough, he could feel them as his own… which was the exact opposite goal I wanted to accomplish with the whole project.

But right when I was about to give up and rightfully suppress him… a very, unique realization struck my brain. The Lifestream, the vital force of the planet itself, isn't just a common source of energy… it is made of raw emotions! It's the overwhelming compound of every living being's feelings and dreams, it's what generated Life in the first place and also what shalt bring it back when the time will occur… I guess you can call it God! If my theory is correct, and it is, I have created a new Messiah that is yet to uncover his true capacities… I AM JOSEPH!"

The hysterically high perched yells of the sole proclaimed "Joseph" of the modern age could be heard in all over the manor, scaring the holy high purgatory out of its current inhabitants… all of them, except the one person Hojo was talking to (or rather, soliloquizing to), Dr. Lucrecia Crescent, who by now, was struggling to not explode into a blazing volcano of unearthly rage… She did not believe in a God, whether being almighty or artificial, but that wacky theory about the Lifestream being the source of human life and emotions was just too much to bear, not to mention, the absurd way the deranged scientist was now referring to her child…

He was Her child… not His!

As if on cue, Hojo slowly turned his head towards his one-person crowd; the dim light of the library made his shadow appear ten times bigger, granting him the very appropriate image of a hellish demon. His eyes shined from behind his glasses as an old book labelled "The Study of Planet Earth and the Lifestream" fell from his hand. He smiled the creepiest among smiles at her, managing to turn all of her previous anger into the usual amount of nervousness. A sentence came out of his mouth, the unmistakable conclusion to his last statement.

"… and you, Dr. Crescent… YOU ARE MARIA!" His arms raised in the air in the typical "I understood everything" fashion while Lucrecia fell on her knees in shock. He approached her, eternal smirk plastered on his face, and added: "The King's true powers are yet to be proven… that is why, he needs some time in the Real World, but I am tired to wait, therefore I'm going to take things into my own hands… I have a dinner appointment in just a few minutes, I've better be ready, eeh eeh eeh…" He started walking towards the door when he remembered one last thing and didn't hesitate to blurt it out: "Oh and… Lucrecia? I think he probably knows… he knows about you!" And with that said, the maniacal one left a very disturbed woman alone in the chamber, throwing the hell out of her stomach in utter pain.

The pain of a mother.


End file.
